Baseball in Wartime Timeline

Gene Stack, White Sox prospect who won 19 games with
Lubbock in 1940, reports to Fort Custer, Michigan.

January 21

Walt
Nothe, southpaw pitcher with Reading in the Interstate
League enlists in the Army.

February

Alex
Pitko, outfielder who played for the Phillies in 1938 and
Senators in 1939, is with the Army at Fort Dix, New Jersey.

Tom
Gorman, who pitched for the Giants in 1939 and was with
Clinton in the Three-I League in 1940, joins the Army.

March

Ralph McLeod, who played briefly with the Boston Braves
and is an outfielder with the St Paul Saints in the American
Association, enters military service with the Army.

Tom
Ananicz, a pitcher with the Kansas City Blues of the
American Association, declares himself a conscientious
objector and is classified Class 4-A. He will work in a
munitions factory should war be declared.

Larry Steinbeck, first-string catcher of the Ogden Reds in
the Pioneer League, withdraws from professional baseball to
continue work at an arsenal in Ogden, Utah.

March 4

Forrest “Lefty” Brewer, minor league pitcher who threw a
no-hitter with St Augustine in 1938, has to delay his call
up to the Washington Senators as he reports for military
service with the Army at Camp Blanding, Florida.

March 6

Pete Petropoulos, batting practice pitcher for the
Brooklyn Dodgers in 1938, who pitched for Fort Lauderdale in
the Florida East Coast League in 1940, volunteers for the
Army.

Saginaw of the Michigan State League is the first team to
lose a director in the draft as Burrows Marley reports for
duty with the Army at Fort Custer, Michigan.

March 8

Hugh Mulcahy of the Phillies is drafted by the Army and
becomes the first major league regular in military service.

March 11

Hank Greenberg takes his military physical examination
at Lakeland, Florida. He is found to have flat feet but
given Class 1-A classification.

March 13

Don Stewart, Western International League umpire, is
killed in a German bombing raid on Scotland while serving
with the Canadian Army’s Calgary Highlanders.

March 14

W G
Bramham, president of the National Association reveals that
41 minor leaguers have been inducted into the armed forces
so far.

White Sox pitcher John Rigney is found unfit for military
service and classified Class 4-B by a draft board in
Pasadena, California. Rigney suffers from a chronic
perforation of the right ear drum as a result of a childhood
attack of scarlet fever. Rigney is re-examined in April and
reclassified Class 1-A. He is then granted a deferment of 60
days on the plea that immediate induction would be an
“unusual individual hardship” on him. Rigney then withdraws
the request and is inducted in the Army on June 19, as
originally scheduled. Shortly afterwards he is again
classified 4-F and rejected for military service for the
same original reason – a chronically perforated right ear
drum.

March 25

Milt
Bocek, outfielder with the White Sox in 1933 and 1934, and
named as manager of the Gastonia minor league club for 1941,
is inducted in the Army.

Lou
Briganti, a pitcher who was with the All-America team that
toured Japan in 1935, and was with Hot Springs of the Cotton
States League in 1940, is inducted in the Army and stationed
at Camp Croft, South Carolina.

One
hundred baseball hopefuls turned out at Fort Dix, New
Jersey, for the 44th Division team. Among the
candidates were Private Robert Kneth, former Yankees’
organization catcher; Private John Windzigi who pitched for
Cambridge in the Eastern Shore League; and Private Walter
Singer, former baseball and football star at Syracuse
University.

Lou
Russo, former shortstop with Kinston in the Coastal Plain
League is playing baseball with an Army team at Fort Eustis,
Virginia.

Umpire Stephen Dobos, who in July 1940, was rejected by the
British Royal Air Force, leaves the Florida East Coast
League to become a flying cadet with the Army Air Corps at
Camden, South Carolina.

May

Dan
Pavlovic, who left the Oklahoma City Indians of the Texas
League to join the Army Air Corps, is a private in the 89th
School Squadron at Barksdale Field, Louisiana, and manager
of the Barksdale Field Flyers.

May
1

Right-hander,
Oadis Swigart, is the first member of the Pittsburgh
Pirates to join the armed forces when he is inducted into
the Army.

May
7

Tigers’ outfielder
Hank Greenberg reports for duty at 6.30am with the Army
at Fort Custer, Michigan.

May
12

Brooklyn Dodgers’
Joe Gallagher is inducted into the US Army at Buffalo,
New York.

May
14

Harry “Moose” McCormick, who last played major league
baseball with the New York Giants in 1913, is named athletic
director of the First Air Force, US Army Air Corps.

Bud
Doleshal, formerly a catcher with Stockton in the California
League, pitched a 5-0 no-hitter at Fort McArthur for Battery
C over the Quartermasters.

June
2

Lou Gehrig dies
in New York of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis at 37.

June
8

Pete Petropoulos, former Florida East Coast league
pitcher, throws a 4-0 no-hitter for the 22nd
Infantry against the 20th Engineers at Fort
Benning, Georgia.

June
20

United States Army Air Corps becomes United States Army Air
Force.

June
22

Don
Triner, third baseman with Welch Miners in the Mountain
State League, received a farewell reception at home plate
before a game against Logan. Triner homered in the seventh
inning but the Miners lost, 7-5.

June
27

Sam
Malvica, second baseman with the Pampa Oilers, receives a
billfold of money from fans for his fine playing and
sportsmanship with the team before reporting to Fort Bliss,
Texas on July 11.

July

Zeke Bonura is named assistant to the athletic officer
at Camp Shelby, Mississippi. In addition to coaching and
playing baseball, Bonura looks after basketball, football
and track.

July
5

Marcel Serventi, pitcher with the Spokane Indians of the
Western International League, is killed in an auto accident
while returning to military service at Fort Ord, California.

July
8

Billy Hitchcock, infielder with Kansas City of the American
Association, reports to Fort Sill, Oklahoma, for induction
in the Army.

July
13

W G
Bramham, president of the National Association, announces
the appointment of a Defense Service Committee, designed to
lend any possible assistance to minor league players now
serving in the armed forces. “We want all our players who
have entered the ranks, to know that we are interested in
their welfare,” said Bramham. “This committee is ready to
help them in contacting friends or relatives, offering
counsel or handling other problems which the boys are unable
to look after themselves … We urge any of them who are in
need of such help to communicate with the committee member
nearest their base.” Tom Fairweather, president of the
Three-I League and Western Association is named chairman of
the Defense Service Committee.

July
15

Irv
Dickens, second baseman with Wilson in the Coastal Plain
League, is honored by fans with a Dickens Night because he
is leaving to join the Army on July 21. However, Dickens is
later given a deferment by an Army surgeon because he has
varicose veins. All members of the draft board that
originally declared him fit resigned. Further
investigation by a board of officers at Fort Bragg, North
Carolina, agreed with the rejection.

July
17

The longest
hitting streak in baseball history ends at 56 when the
Cleveland Indians hold
Joe DiMaggio hitless.

July
28

The
Fort Riley Cavalry Replacement Training Center team, were
beaten, 11-9, by the Wichita Stearman Trainers, before 8,000
at Lawrence Stadium in Wichita, Kansas, to lose the Kansas
State semi-pro championship.

August

W G
Bramham releases a report indicating that 193 minor league
players have been placed on the National Defense List since
October 1, 1940.

Billy Southworth Jr receives his commission as a
lieutenant and earns his pilot’s wings this month.

The
Armored Force Training Center team at Fort Knox, Kentucky,
has won 18 games without a loss this season. Lieutenant Amel
F Klsonak, the coach, pitched for Lisbon Falls in the Maine
State League. The line-up includes pitcher Felix Pense and
outfielder Armand W Gardner who were both with Yakima of the
Western International League; pitcher Warren St Clair, who
hurled in the Florida West Coast league; John McNamara,
third baseman from the Midwestern League; Dan Tobin,
outfielder with San Diego in the Pacific Coast League; Lee
Reiss, outfielder from New York University; Cliff Johnson,
first baseman with Houston of the Texas League; John Powell
second baseman from the University of Pennsylvania, and
Marvin Turner, Three-I League catcher.

The
Reception team at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, have won 19
games and lost none.

Lucien Governale, former pitcher with Lafayette in the
Evangeline League and former Southwest Louisiana Institute
track and baseball star, dominated a track meet at Fort
Knox, Kentucky, and then hurled a three-hitter immediately
afterwards.

A
toe broken five years ago caused the Columbus, Ohio, draft
board to reject Chuck Gerlach, outfielder with the Tiffin
Mud Hens of the Ohio State League.

August 6

Hank Greenberg, serving at Fort Custer, Michigan, is
loaned to the State Prison for Southern Michigan baseball
team to play first base against the Fort Custer Reception
team. Greenberg hits a 390-foot home run, two doubles and a
single, as his team wins 16 to 2.

August 7

Playing his last game for the Goldsboro Goldbugs in the
Coastal Plain League, outfielder Sam Patton is the recipient
of many gifts from the team’s fans. Patton joins the Army
August 13.

August 13

John
Deetz, a pitcher the Cincinnati Reds bought out of the Army
in 1938, struck out 10 for Fort Bragg in a 3-2 loss to
Sanford of the Bi-State League, in an exhibition game.

August 15

White Sox pitcher
Gene Stack, serving with the Army at Fort Custer,
Michigan, is struck on the head by a pitched ball in the
second inning of a game between the Reception Center team
and the H S Sherman club. Stack is taken to the camp
hospital but his condition is not serious. Fort Custer wins
the game, 7 to 5.

August 16

Private Albert McCarty, formerly with Jonesboro in the
Northeast Arkansas League, pitches a no-hitter for the
Reception Center team at Camp Robinson.

August 19

Richard Collins, a pitcher with Bridgeport of the
Inter-State League, hurls the Fort Riley Cavalry team to a
15 to 5 win over Talladega, Alabama, in the national
semi-pro tournament at Wichita, Kansas.

Jerry Angelich, who had trials with
the Sacramento Solons of the Pacific Coast League in 1935
and 1936, and pitched for three seasons with the Provo Timps
of the Utah Industrial Independent League, enlists with the
Army Air Force. He will be stationed at Hickam Field in
Honolulu.

September

Zeke Bonura, former major league first baseman now
leading the Minneapolis Millers of the American Association
in hitting enters military service with the US Army at Camp
Shelby, Mississippi.

Bobby Mattick, who played for the Reds in 1941, is rejected
for military service because of a skull fracture he received
in 1937 while with the Los Angeles Angels in the Pacific
Coast League.

Art
Kenney, who pitched for the Boston Braves in 1938, has
appealed to President Roosevelt for deferment after failing
to change his classification from 1-A in appeals to both his
local and district boards. He was classified 1-A in June
1940 but has since married and is a school teacher in the
winter months.

October 6

The New York
Yankees clinch the World Series with a 3-1 win at Ebbets
Field against the Brooklyn Dodgers in Game Five.

October 17

A German U-boot
sinks the American destroyer, the USS Reuben James, while on
convoy duty in the North Atlantic in a torpedo attack. The
warship sinks off the Icelandic coast and over 100 Americans
lose their lives.

October 20

Zeke Bonura is discharged from Army after Congress
releases men aged 28 years and older from service.

October 22

James Acton, a catcher with the Topeka Owls of the Western
Association is rejected by military physicians after one day
of Army service because he suffered a broken leg in the
final game of the 1940 season and he has not fully
recovered.

October 24

Fred
Hutchinson, who pitched for the Tigers in 1939 and 1940,
receives orders to report for Army duty on November 3, but
signs up instead for a four-year hitch with the Navy. He
becomes an aid to Lieutenant-Commander Gene Tunney in the
Navy’s physical fitness program in December.

Hal
Palmer of Gloversville in the Canadian-American League
enlists in the Army Medical Corps at Albany, New York. He
will be stationed in Honolulu. The catcher-outfielder is an
embalmer by trade.

White Sox outfielder Dave Short is undergoing training with
the Army Air Force at Sheppard Field, Texas.

Guy
Gauvreau, traveling secretary of the Montreal Royals and son
of the vice-president of the club, is a captain with Les
Fusiliers Mont-Royal in England.

Henry L Gray, former president of the Florida State League,
is now a captain in the Army, stationed at Camp Blanding.

November 2

Leo
Walker, youngest brother of major leaguers Gerald and Hub
Walker, and an outstanding athlete at the University of
Mississippi who went on to play in the Cincinnati Reds’
organization, is killed when the B-17 Flying Fortress he is
piloting runs into bad weather and crash lands near
Georgetown, California.

November 4

Fred
Martin, Cardinals’ pitching prospect who won 23 games with
Houston in the Texas League in 1941 is inducted in the Army
at Poteau, Oklahoma.

November 17

Abandoning his request for re-classification in the draft,
Buddy Lewis of the Senators, enlists as a cadet in the Army
Air Force. While awaiting the results of tests he is
assigned to the Field Artillery Replacement Center at Fort
Bragg, North Carolina.

November 27

The
Sporting News
publishes the National Defense List for the first time,
listing 286 professional baseball players in the armed
services.

November 29

Whitey Burch, an infielder with the Kanapolis Towelers
of the North Carolina State League is killed near Albermarle,
North Carolina, when the Army truck he is driving overturns.

December

Andy
Cohen, who last played major league baseball with the New
York Giants in 1929, is with the Army at Fort Bliss, Texas,
where he officiates Army basketball games.

December 4

Ken
Silvestri, catcher with the New York Yankees, reports for
duty with the Army after passing his final physical
examination the previous day.

Boston Braves’ second baseman
Bama Rowell is sworn into the Army at Anniston, Alabama.
He is sent to Fort McPherson, Georgia.

December 5

Sergeant
Hank Greenberg is discharged from Army after Congress
releases men aged 28 years and older from service.

George Archie, first baseman and utility infielder with
the St Louis Browns is inducted into the Army at Camp
Forrest, Tennessee.

December 6

Wayman Kerksieck, who pitched for the Phillies in 1939, is
with the Army at Camp Robinson, Arkansas.

Bob Feller announces at his home in Van Meter, Iowa,
that he will enlist either in the Army Air Force or the
Navy, rather than wait to be drafted.

December 7

Japanese carrier
aircraft launch a surprise attack on the US Pacific Fleet,
anchored at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. Japanese forces
simultaneously conduct attacks on US military installations
in the Philippines, Guam, Wake Island and Midway Island, as
well as attacks on British military bases in Hong Kong and
Malaya. Over 2,340 Americans are killed plus another 876 are
reported as missing.

Jerry Angelich, who had trials with the
Sacramento Solons, is killed during the Japanese attack as
he attempts to use a machine gun from a wrecked plane at
Hickam Field, Honolulu.

Russell
Bailey, minor league pitcher, who joined the Army while at
spring training with Trenton of the Interstate League in
March 1941, escapes unscathed during the Pearl Harbor
attack. Bailey is serving with a coastal artillery regiment
in Hawaii.

December 8

Congress declares
war against the Japanese in response to the surprise attack
at Pearl Harbor.

Indians’
Bob Feller enlists with the US Navy. He is sworn in at a
Chicago courthouse by Lieutenant-Commander Gene Tunney.

December 11

The German and
Italian governments, bound by their Axis treaties, declare
war on the United States in support of the Japanese.

December 12

Walter “Rabbit” Maranville, 50, takes a physical examination
at Springfield, Massachusetts. He plans to enter the Navy
and qualify for a commission as a physical instructor.
Maranville served in the Navy during the First World War.

December 18

Rankin Johnson of the Philadelphia Athletics enlists in the
Navy at El Paso, Texas. He is the fifth Athletics’ player to
join the armed forces.

December 19

The
Selective Service and Training Act is amended, extending the
term of service to the duration of the war and six months,
and requiring the registration of all men eighteen to
sixty-four years of age.

December 26

John Loehrke, a semi-pro pitcher from Mayville,
Wisconsin, and former star athlete at the University of
Wisconsin, is killed in a plane crash at Macon, Georgia,
while serving with the Army Air Force.

December 30

Stan
Cazen (Kaczynski), outfielder with Topeka of the Western
Association in 1939, enlists as a mechanic in the Army Air
Force at Jefferson Barracks, Missouri.